DMC now stable but will face more tests

The Detroit Medical Center is making money as CEO Mike Duggan prepares to leave at the end of the year, but the eight-hospital system still faces challenges as it makes the leadership transition. The region's fourth largest health system has made a profit for eight straight years since Duggan took the helm in 2004. Last year, it made an estimated $117 million profit—its largest during that time, according to Minnesota-based hospital analyst Allan Baumgarten. Its parent company, Vanguard Health Services Inc., has spent $200 million of a promised $1 billion to improve the DMC's facilities. Baumgarten said the proposed merger of the market-leading Henry Ford and Beaumont health systems "is partly a response to a perceived challenge from a reinvigorated DMC system."